Infigen Announces Cutbacks; Layoffs

DeForest, WI, January 23, 2004--Infigen, Inc., the Madison-area biotechnology firm with interests in nuclear
transfer cloning of animals for human health applications, announced today
that substantially all of the staff will be laid off as a result of funding
cutbacks by its collaboration partners, combined with a delay in the
granting of expected US government grants. As a result, the company's staff
is preparing its offices and labs so that a skeleton staff can monitor
expected government funding and other developments. The shut down will
include a minimal, part time staff to keep a corporate presence that may
permit a restart when government funding is approved. This action affects
substantially all the personnel of the company, with the exception of four
full-time staff who perform DNA tests for the Agriculture market under the
trade name Genmark. These staff members have been contracted to the Genmark
business, which was sold in a previously unannounced transaction in 2003,
and the staff will become part of the purchasing company's permanent
workforce in 2004. Infigen's animal care staff will also remain as the
remaining animals are shipped to their owners.

"This is action that is necessitated by the nature of our work," said Walter
Simson, CEO of Infigen. "We have a responsibility to assure the care of the
animals, and to make sure that our biological materials and samples are
properly stored and distributed. At the same time, these actions will not
preclude a resumption of our activities, if funding can be obtained."

The cutback is necessitated by the lack of capital. The company has been
funding its operations primarily with scientific collaborations with
pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. The most important
collaboration was with Immerge BioTherapeutics, a Cambridge, Massachusetts
company that is performing preclinical research into so-called
xenotransplantation, or the study of transplanting cells, tissues or organs
from animal sources into humans for therapeutic benefit. Infigen has
delivered over 30 miniature swine to Immerge for testing. The swine had
been genetically modified so that a component of the pig's cellular make-up,
which is toxic to humans, would not be present in those cells. It is hoped
that such research would help the 85,000 Americans who are on a waiting list
for human organs. Approximately 20 patients per day die while awaiting a
human organ from human sources, and the number of such deaths is growing as
transplantation needs in the population are increasing. It is hoped that a
new source of tissue, from genetically modified swine, will address this
great medical need. Infigen estimates that several years' worth of further
testing will be required before such a therapeutic use of the swine organs
can be approved by the US Food and Drug Administration.

US government grants have also been an important part of Infigen's funding.
One grant, for $800,000 was expected in October, 2003 but has not been
received, apparently due to a lack of an approved federal budget. A second
grant, for $1 million, was given a very high score by the National Institute
of Health, (NIH) which administers these grants. In normal times, this
grant would have been expected to start funding in April of 2004, The
company hopes that, if the grant is funded, the operations can be started up
again. If the startup can not be accomplished, the activities of the staff
over the next several weeks, cataloging materials and preparing equipment
for storage, will serve the orderly disposal of the company's assets.